End of the bulkhead was a bit ropey so marked it out and then cut a big bigger chasing the rust. This needed doing as you need to be able to weld this into the inner arch repairs.

Not too bad under the seam, only the end section nearest the arch needed some new metal in the lower part. Repaired with a patch panel.

I've fabbed up a section to close up the wheel arch (took hours), but before I fit it I thought I'd check out the chassis rail a bit more closely because it didn't look too clever. Also it gave more space to work in to assess things.

Worse underneath in places...

So chopped and drilled quite a bit and confirmed my suspicions. Several holes in the bottom of the rail. So all this came out. Some of which will be kept as a guide for making repair panels.

This resulted in a large hole.

There is more to come out but I need to put some new metal back in to try and keep some shape to it all before I chop out anymore.

Not updated here in a while as not much progress as I'd like has been made in the last three weekends as they have been write offs with DIY jobs (rebuild the boundary fence, then re-roof the kitchen, finally re-tile the shower), but have made some headway as per below:

Final bits to sort out on this arch - now chopped out ready to start rebuilding.

April. That was when I started work on the drivers side inner wing. For a variety of reasons it's taken all this time to finish it. There was a lot of rot that was hidden from view, but the good news is it's all sorted now.

During this time I've had chance to think on a few other things. One was that some bits just weren't worth repairing, specifically the radiator support bar. So I chopped it out:

All of the three under bumper mounting bolts were seized in or had already snapped. It was just crusty with rust.

Although I marked the new bar for all three of the original radiator rubber mounting holes, I only drilled the two for the 16v rad. I've also added M6 nuts underneath for the bumper mountings.

Well undoing the nuts and bolts for that rad bar once was enough so before I zinc primered it up, I welded some nuts on so now it's just 4 cap head bolts and a 5mm hex key to remove. Also shaped the end plates up a bit so that they sit within the curves of the original mounting point pressings.

Only taken a year since we went down to see Colin to get around to fitting some of his fine craftsmanship to the car...

Strut tower sides needed a little arc of relief near the tops to get the down tubes in the right place as the photo below shows they don't line up with out it nor fit in the top plates properly. Only a bit taken out really.

After lots of prep, welded in:

Ground down the welds on the top surface of the plate and primed. There are a few sections on that side of the bay where I need to do a bit more work to get them ready before primer. I've been using the 90% Zinc Plastikote stuff which I think is really good. I then ran out and the next stuff (which was Halfords as it was all I could get today) reacted so I am going to save that some something else and order some more of the Plastikote stuff.

Remembered to drill out the spot welds on the window wiper brackets before I welded the top plates in. I've not worked those out for the left hand drive wiper setup yet. Have started work on the other side now, but probably need to sort out the scuttle before doing much else.

So when I had the white 16v Rallye caged and the same tunnel reinforcement plate removed, the MOT station failed the car because the mounting for the handbrake was then too flimsy afterwards. To remedy that I welded a plate on around the handbrake mounting points which kept the testers happy, but was no good because then to fit the handbrake I needed to fit an extra bit where the tunnel changes profile towards the back of the car. It did the job but looked a bit piece meal.

Based on this experience I thought that I would do something different this time. So cardboard template led to this being cut out of 3mm sheet. Centre line determined and a lesson learned in getting the plate the right way around. This is clearly the wrong way around...

Before that could go in, the original tunnel reinforcement plate was cut up to release this bit, which is what the handbrake gasket mounts into and gives the positions for the mountings. The standard mountings are 6mm rectangular blocks tapped out to M8, but I was missing one so I pressed out the other one and welded on some nuts onto thick washers giving me this:

Bit of fettling for shape and welded in:

Top plate shaped to fit the handbrake mounting points and the other end shaped to the change in profile of the tunnel. Back mounting points for the hydraulic handbrake get crush tubes. Decided to make it a little bit more interesting with a relieved bit under the hydraulic handbrake that matches up with the holes drilled in the base. Lined that cut out to stop crap getting under the plate...